“We are proud to announce that we are an inclusive organisation.”

​This statement is often deceptive.

​You are likely familiar with tokenism, the practice of recruiting people from minority backgrounds primarily to project an image of diversity.

However, hiring a diverse cast does not inherently make an organisation’s culture inclusive. Much like a prejudiced person writing a progressive essay.

​What, then, is the incentive?

​The answer is reputation. For for-profits ventures, this acts as supplementary brand value. For the humanitarian and development sectors, however, it is fundamental currency. This reputation is the exact capital these organisations require to secure funding and maintain their authority. It is an investment.

​You may still argue that enforcing quotas results in a measure of inclusivity.

Well, ​this is a misconception.

​Such practices treat the symptoms whilst entirely ignoring the underlying disease. It engineers statistical changes without addressing systemic inequities.

​Most importantly, tokenism heavily penalises qualified candidates.

Consider a scenario where a candidate is rejected simply because he is a man, not because the role strictly requires a woman, but because the organisation needs to meet a statistical threshold.

​Beyond excluding qualified professionals, tokenism frequently fails to address intersectionality.

Consider a hiring pool with three candidates: the excellent one is from an ethnic majority, second one is from an ethnic minority with fair background, and a second minority candidate with a weaker profile.

To meet diversity targets, the recruiter excludes the majority candidate but selects the minority candidate with the stronger profile, thereby prioritising class or educational privilege whilst claiming an ethnic diversity victory.

​It is an inherent contradiction.

​Tokenism has become a systemic burden under which favouritism and bias flourish. Moreover, critiquing this practice often results in being unfairly labelled as anti-inclusion, a reputational risk few are willing to take.

​Tokenism must end so that merit can prevail. True inclusivity should be ensured at the foundational level, in schools and through equal access to resources, rather than being artificially engineered at the hiring stage.